Terrifying moment 220lb shark sinks teeth into tourist on diving trip
Terrifying moment 220lb shark sinks teeth into tourist on diving trip
A tourist was left with a 6 inch wound on the side of her body after a shark sank its teeth into her whilst on a dive in the Maldives.
Carmen Canovas Cervello was diving at Vaavu Atoll in the South Asian country when the 220 pound predator attacked her and locked its jaws around her side.
The 30-year-old had been swimming alongside a group of nurse sharks for 45 minutes before the attack took place.
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Footage of the shocking incident was captured by her friend, underwater photographer Ibrahim Shafeeg, who was using his GoPro Hero 9 camera at the time.
In the video, Cervello is shown swimming among the sharks before one seemingly decided that she was getting too close for its liking.
The bite only lasted for a moment but left enough of a mark for Cervello to immediately climb out of the water.
Once out of the water, the two checked the wound, which covered part of her upper back and shoulder, but decided it was a 'minor injury' and returned to their dive.
Cervello didn't also seek medical attention for the bite and left it to heal on its own as she spent the rest of the holiday in the ocean.
Shafeeg said: "We were in the shark bay at Vaavu Atoll diving with nurse sharks.
"We decided to do a free dive trip to shark bay and snorkel inside a group of sharks there.
"There were around ten nurse sharks, from 198-pounds to 220-pounds and over three metres wide.
"After the shark bite, we thought nothing major about it as it was only a minor injury so we cleaned the wound and continued snorkelling at the same spot again."
Nurse sharks are common in the Vaavu Atoll region of the Maldives, where they sometimes seek food around the different tourist spots in the area.
Usually, this breed of shark is considered non-aggressive and will mostly swim away from any humans in their environment.
But they can attack if they feel provoked and their strong jaws and sharp teeth mean their bites can sometimes be life threatening.
According to reports from before 2022, there were around 51 provoked and five unprovoked attacks from nurse sharks.
Given that she survived and didn't need to receive medical attention, Cervello can certainly count herself lucky, especially given that this was also her first shark bite experience.
But this close call hasn't put her or Shafeeg off from mingling with sharks, however, as the duo still continue to take dangerous dips in the sea.
Ben Thompson